


Honey and Steel

by INeedMoreHadesBeforeISwoon



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: Age Difference, Coming of Age, F/F, First Kiss, First Meetings, Meet-Cute, Young Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:55:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24610420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/INeedMoreHadesBeforeISwoon/pseuds/INeedMoreHadesBeforeISwoon
Summary: Sterling-bright and Apricot-goldorHow the Goddess of Wisdom and War met the Hearth-fire of Olympus, and what they found under the moonlight amidst the rose-gardens....
Relationships: Athena/Hestia (Lore Olympus)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 28





	1. A Taste of Passion

**Author's Note:**

> This fic begins about 300 years before the start of LO canon, at a Panathenaea party. This puts it at about 1700 years post-Titanomachy. Within are :
> 
> Discussions of gender roles/presentation  
> Soul-mate recognitions  
> Naive obliviousness and young adult ineptitude  
> First Kiss
> 
> Enjoy the latest from Swoonie's Headspace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As ever and always, my undying gratitude goes to Rissa my beta-feesh. I stewed on this fic in secret for weeks before broaching it with her - see end notes for why - and I'm happy to say it's finally out there.

The gleaming gown glided down her body like a river of silver, dramatic in its clean-cut lines. Her image in the mirrored glass was one of poise, elegance and royal bearing clad in richness of beauty and grace.

Athena hated every inch of the thing.

The door creaked open behind her and the Queen of Olympus entered the younger goddess’ dressing room. Golden-gleaming hands flew to cover a porcelain smile, and Athena groaned.

“Do I have to do this…?”

Hera approached slowly, angling around in a careful arc behind the rapier-thin youth. Her hands finally drifted away to reveal her triumphant smirk, coming to rest on Athena’s left shoulder in tandem as the two goddesses stared at their images in the mirror. 

“You… look… beautiful, Athena, simply beautiful….”

“Uggggh!” Athena spun, stomping to the carved wooden chair at her desk. She flopped down - propriety be damned - and didn’t even bother to try to keep her knees together. The damned gown was too tight, anyway, the slits near her ankles not coming nearly high enough for her legs to splay out like she wanted. “You know I’m not _beautiful_ , Mama! My shoulders are too wide, and I never did _fill out_ like all the nymphs and everybody said I would…. Let’s face it: I’d be better suited in a suit and tie like Papa and Uncle Hades….”

Hera moved to sit on the side of Athena’s bed, a patient half-smile drawing Athena’s attention like the rays of a dawning sky. “This is…. Well, think of it as a necessity in order to get to what you really, truly want. You want to be acknowledged in the court of Olympus and beyond for your own deeds to come, yes?”

“Duh, Mama!”

“You don’t want to be known as the _offspring_ of the King of Olympus, or at least not _only_ for that….”

“Right!”

“.... Then you need to show them that, for one thing, you’re not him made over: you think Zeus would ever be caught wearing a gown like that?!” They laughed together, chimes and crashing shields. “You are Athena. You are your own person. And in that gown, no one will mistake you for another or some imagined princess. You are Kingsblood; you are worthy of the admiration and worship of our people; and you are, indeed, female….”

“.... But it’s just a piece of cloth! Why must a piece of cloth define me?! Why can’t my words, my actions, my own voice!?!!”

Hera sighed, and something in Athena’s soul perked up at the words the Queen spoke next. “Because, until someone reshapes the Cosmos to suit everyone equally, _people_ expect women to dress like this for events like this…. Play their game for now, Athena, and when you’ve taken what you want from them, reshape their world and their views to suit you…. Think of it as a disguise: infiltrate their perceptions by this camouflage….”

Hera rose from the bed, one hand trailing over the bedposts as the Queen left her all-but-daughter’s chambers. 

Athena stood, approaching the mirror as if it were a sparring foe on the mats.

_…. A guise…. Show them what they want to see, and they won’t be offended and ignore me from the start…. Get in under their guard, and then I can show them who I truly am…._

_…. Trapped by bars of cloth, but we can rip the seams from within…._

The silver-shining goddess left her bedchamber for her presentation at the Panathenaea, for the doors she would see opened to her own bright self amongst the members of the Pantheon, one way or the other….

* * *

Hestia picked her way around the clusters of immortals, straining to see the golden form of the Queen at every opportunity. 

_Been in the Mortal Realm too long, Hes, far too long…. Not used to all of this anymore…._

_Mortals are so much easier to deal with!_

Finally, there was an opening in the press of formal-clad bodies, and Hestia dove for it, trying not to seem too desperate. Thankfully, the clearing was exactly where she needed to be: Hera turned from a gaggle of red-tinged nymphs of varying kind at Hesta’s panted arrival. 

“Hestia, there you are!” The nymphs retreated with the Queen’s finger-flicking dismissal, and Hestia held still as the slender goddess in her gleaming blue-sequined gown embraced her. “I wondered if you’d stand us up yet again! I’m so glad you came….”

“.... I…. I won’t be staying long, Hera; I just wanted to, well….”

Hera chuckled warmly at Hestia’s stumbling attempts. “I know, I know, crowds are not your thing. I’m very glad you came, but I won’t keep you….”

“No, I…. I needed, well, wanted…. Um, could…. I wanted to move b-back to Olympus, and….”

“Oh! You need help finding a place?!” Hestia nodded, grateful as always for Hera’s enthusiasm. “Well, aren’t you a lucky one! There’s quite a few new locations coming on the market soon, I’m sure you’d want something new-built and not some social-climber’s cast-off….” Hestia followed the Queen to a table, set high from the floor under the flickering multi-colored party lights; the goddesses stretched onto their toes to seat themselves on the stools, and Hera absentmindedly waved down a passing potamoi in wait-staff blacks-and-whites for a fresh martini without breaking stride in her building diatribe about available estates in Olympus proper.

After a few minutes, Hestia’s attention faltered, and she could not have said for sure if it was fate or happy accident, but her wandering gaze was caught by a striking form only visible from her elevated perch on this high-topped stool:

White hair, thick as a snow-drift under the moon.

Gleaming skin of sterling, bright as dew upon a spider’s web.

Slender to the point of seeming lean: a spear was never so elegantly crafted….

The mystery goddess turned in profile, speaking animatedly to a group of cyclops and minotaurs, and Hestia felt her heart crash inside her chest.

_…. Hades’ child…?! No!_

“.... Hestia, are you alright...?” Though it was the height of crudeness, Hestia pointed toward the silver goddess. Hera’s eyes followed the line her finger marked through the air, and then golden fingers clasped gently over her honey-bright hand. “Oh, yes, you haven’t met her yet. She wasn’t even born when you were last in Olympus, and Zeus is adamant that she be a visible member of society-at-large before he lets her loose in the Mortal Realm. This is rather a coming-out party for her, of sorts, I guess we could - ”

“Hades’...?” Hestia could barely get the question past her lips; she prayed Hera wouldn’t need her to explain further.

“.... Oh! No, Hestia, dear, goodness no! She’s actually Zeus’ child…. Kind of how some of our ancestors, you know, _made_ children without actually, you know…? Yeah. Zeus, all by himself, and if it hadn’t laid him up in bed for a week-and-a-half, he’d have been far more braggy about it….”

“Ah….” What else could she say? At least the goddess wasn’t a Cthonic spawn: Hestia _knew_ in her soul that she could never, not ever, be with a creature born of that terrible place….

“Oh! I’m sorry, dear, I truly _must_ go catch Amphitrite before she gets away! ‘Trite…!” 

Hestia sat frozen on her stool as Hera disappeared into the crowd. 

_…. Just do it, you worrywort…._

Hestia snatched Hera’s abandoned glass from the tabletop, draining the last of the liquor in one shot, hissing through her teeth at the burn. She pushed herself off the stool and entered the throng once more, the half-sweet taste of alcohol firing her courage like nothing she’d felt since the War.

She had to meet the gleaming silver goddess, had to know if the song her heart was singing would finally find its harmony in the soul of this mysterious beauty….

* * *

“Yes, I absolutely _would_ like to see you square off with my brother sometime!” Athena laughed (cackled) as the minotaur realized his bluff had been called. “I mean, he’s really been angling for someone to drill with some of the newer, foreign-made polearms, give ‘em a good shake and all. How does next week sound…?”

The minotaur backed down as his nearest companions thumped his shoulders and back. Athena smiled, reaching for the flute of bubbling ambrosia a potamoi extended toward her. The crowd around the silver goddess suddenly fractured, a microcosm starburst of back-stepping beings as a gasping figure stumbled into a pair of satyrs near Athena’s left side, nearly tumbling to the floor in a heap of crimson silk and titanium waves of hair. Reflexively, Athena reached for the wide-spread fingers, bracing her knees and providing steady tension as the half-panicked goddess straightened, ichor in her cheeks turning her apricot-tinged skin a too-bright shade of amber-gold. 

Athena blinked at those wide eyes and then smiled softly. “If some man is pursuing you against your wishes, goddess, I could assist you in thoroughly rebuffing his unwanted advances….”

The goddess blushed further, blinking slowly, and Athena wondered if perhaps she was too drunk to be left alone. She murmured excuses to the males around her, and respectfully they parted as she guided the trembling goddess toward the garden doors.

_Some fresh air will do her good, and then we’ll see what else she needs to get through this evening…._

* * *

Hestia clung to the whip-thin arm of the goddess, letting herself be led she knew not where, trying to steady her racing heart. Never before had the mere _presence_ of another immortal, another woman, affected her so strongly, so very strangely….

And the silver beauty seemed entirely unaware of the effect she wrought on the Hearth-fire of Olympus!

The balmy air of an Olympian night washed over Hestia’s flushed cheeks, breaking a little of the spell her savior had wrapped around her so effortlessly. The shorter goddess let herself be maneuvered onto a marbled bench, white and lavender roses perfuming the air behind and to either side: a secluded alcove of fireflies and starlight. The slender goddess planted herself beside Hestia on the bench, a few handspans separating their hips, and Hestia wondered briefly how tired the younger goddess must be with how she rather flopped to the stone.

“Ooooof! I _told_ Mama the party would be better out here: feel that breeze…? Waaaay too warm inside, windows open or not!” The cheeky grin and mischievous wink must have meant something, but Hestia couldn’t breathe again.

_Dimples…._

The goddess seemed concerned, and Hestia fought to reply with an understanding smile of her own. She must not have succeeded, because silver fingers plastered over her clammy brow, knuckles bony against her hairline. 

“Are you alright, goddess? Is there someone I could fetch to help get you home? You seem a little over-done….”

_…._

_DON’T LEAVE...!_

“No, n-no, I’m…. I’m fine, just f-fine….”

A stern look replaced the soft concern, and Hestia’s heart froze behind her ribs.

“.... Please don’t ever lie to me again.”

 _…. Never…._ “I-I-I am not ill, goddess…. Just a little… overwhelmed….”

“That I believe. Thank you for the honesty, and I’m sorry I was a little… much…. Heh, comes with the territory, though I still feel like I’m growing into it, and isn’t that terrifying, that I’m not done being scary yet!” The goddess laughed, and Hestia finally realized what Hera had meant.

“.... How old are you, goddess…?”

“Oh! Right, introductions! Hi, I’m Athena, and I’m twenty-one, and this was my first Panathenaea all official-like, and you are…?”

 _Oh no, no, too young, this isn’t fair!_ “....Hestia, I’m He - ”

“Oh! Oh my goodness, you are, aren’t you?! Gods, I’m an idiot, I should have recognized you, all the paintings and all! Forgive me, won’t you, for treating you like a weakling who can’t defend her own honor…?”

“N-n-nothing to forgive, truly!”

An awkward silence descended over the rose-bound hideaway until Athena broke it once more. Hestia got the feeling that the young goddess was by turns a heavy-talker or grave-silent, and she found herself wanting to find ways to keep the sterling-bright being speaking, on anything at all. Her voice carried notes of birdsong and spider-silk in the night….

“I have to tell you, Hestia, I have wanted to meet you for rather a few years, and I feel a fool for botching this. Apart from your choice to remain in close contact with the mortals since the End, you, more than even Mama or Thesmophoria, _you_ stood on the killing fields and fought. You stood by my father and his brothers, and you held your own against Titans…. I have always wanted to meet the goddess who fought like a King….”

There were no thoughts in Hestia’s mind as she stared into iron-black eyes, no thoughts but one:

“.... May I kiss you, Athena…?”

Silver-shining cheeks dulled as a smoky blush flooded Athena’s face. The lean goddess straightened on the bench, staring out over the tamped-earth garden path, and Hestia smirked to herself as she watched the young woman swallow, _hard_ . “I-I-I-I…. _-chem_ , I have never…. That is to say, I don’t….” Her shoulders fell, and Hestia _felt_ the pain behind the words. “I’m not beautiful; why would you want to kiss _me…_?”

The courage gleaned from Hera’s discarded liquor had faded long minutes before; this courage was something more soul-bound, and Hestia could not deny the fire in her heart. She hooked two fingers beneath Athena’s chin, pulling firmly with a feather-light touch to bring those steely eyes back to her own. 

“You should not lie to yourself, either, brilliant one: beauty is not something assigned from the Cosmos Above, as Aphrodite and her ilk would have us believe. Beauty is something that shines from inside one’s self, and you, Athena: your soul shines so brightly even your skin cannot contain the gleam….”

Hestia closed the distance, her lips and Athena’s meeting as dove-wings on a fence-rail, and the Hearth-fire knew she’d found a home….

* * *

Athena’s heart pounded against her ribs, and the blush burning her cheeks and neck was only blazing hotter as the older goddess’ lips met her own. A lilac-scented perfume swamped the air between them, and a salt-sweet taste somehow infiltrated the tiny space left between her lips. She tried not to tense, but the overwhelming combination of sensation, scent, taste, emotion: it was too much, and Athena turned her head toward the back of the bench with a gasp.

Hestia’s fingers trailed away from the space beneath her chin, and Athena wondered if the heat left behind would leave a visible mark. It felt like there should be something to mark what had just happened, but….

Hestia sighed, and Athena felt something like shame welling behind her heart. She hardly heard the words Hestia spoke in a moonlight voice as a multitude of panic-shrieks tumbled through her mind. 

“I apologize for being too forward, Athena. I can’t deny I feel a great deal for you, even though we just barely met. Heh, I’ve always struggled with impulse control…. Please forgive me, I should not have rushed this….” Hestia rose from the bench, and Athena could only stare at titanium hair halo’d against the rising moon. “We’ll meet again, Athena, and I promise I’ll follow your lead then.” 

Athena remained frozen to the marble as Hestia walked away down the dusty path, a faint trace of lilac mingling with the variegated roses half-opened beneath the night.

_…. What just happened…?_

* * *

Hera gasped as she finally spotted Athena’s hair, bushy against the spiny leaves of the rose bush. The Queen of Olympus fisted the skirt of her dress, pulling it free of her legs so she could all-but-run to the younger goddess. “Athena, are you okay?! We didn’t know where you’d gone….”

Athena’s gaze was distant behind the polite focus she leveled on Hera. It was times like these that Hera wondered if some other, aether-bound force had in fact had a hand in her not-quite-daughter’s making. “I needed to think about some things, Mama. I’m not hurt.”

“.... Alright, dear. The party’s over; come inside for bed, yes…?”

“Yes, thank you for letting me know….” 

The two goddesses left the garden side-by-side, and though Hera knew Athena wasn’t _harmed_ , something had obviously happened under the moonlight amongst the roses to change the young immortal….

_Don’t push, Hera…._

The hallway to Athena’s chambers had never seemed so short.

_Don’t alienate her; you nearly blew it earlier with that “beautiful” comment…._

“Good night, Athena, dear.”

“Good night, Mama….”

The door closed, and Hera wondered if another in her strangeling daughter’s soul had opened….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this fic - since we don’t have a lot on Athena yet - I’m combining some elements from LO canon and LO headcanon and original myths. For this, Athena was “born” of Zeus’ mind in a way similar to Demeter’s creation of Persephone in LO canon. For this story, she is 21, and she and Ares are roughly the same age. We’ll see more of him soon. As another layer, Hera does in fact love Athena as an almost-daughter, and this relationship dynamic will be further explored as this story progresses. 
> 
> This story begins about 300 years before the beginning of LO, and the “style” of the “era” could be considered as a “turn of the century” American-esque look - think 1900s to 1920s - hence, gowns and tuxes and whatnot….
> 
> Additionally, this fic is… rather a lens for my own first experiences. The overwhelm Athena experiences, the sensory information that floods her mind - much of that is something I have personally experienced. There will be more to come with this in future installments, as Athena works through what happened. 
> 
> Finally:
> 
> With this fic, I’m coming out as bisexual. For years, I have told myself and others that I’m hetero-from-the-word-go. Recent developments in my personal life have forced me to re-examine that statement and realize I was lying to myself. 
> 
> While I am *more* attracted to the male form, I can no longer lie and say there is *not* a part of me that is attracted to pleasing a female partner. It is not the same level of attraction, nor even the same “type” - but it is there, and Athena has helped me see the truth of my soul.
> 
> Thank you all for being the supportive community you’ve ever been, and I hope you enjoy this newest Headspace adventure from your Swoonie.


	2. A Taste of Wisdom (From Unexpected Quarters)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright - just mild warnings here for 
> 
> Sparring with weapons (no blood or ichor)  
> Mild touches of overprotective sibling feels (including some god-powered protectiveness)  
> And Confusion over Gender / Sexuality / Body Image
> 
> Athena is trying to process what happened amongst the roses under the moonlight....
> 
> (Many thanks, ever and on, to my bestest beta-feesh Rissa - I was worried this chapter moved too fast, or didn't do enough, but she assured me it was well-put together enough to function, so YAY!)

Ares swung the bearded pike through the air, letting his hands slide down the shaft as he passed the halfway point of his stroke; the new pivot-point not only granted him extra inches on the reach, but removed the resistance as the blade found its target: the reverb and rebound springing the entire shaft upward once more rather than shuddering to slowness in his grip. He spun, adding momentum to inertia and turning the failed strike into another, faster and more powerful than its predecessor. 

Rather than block the newest strike, the opponent rolled, diving over the pounded earth with a soft grunt of exertion. The clank of metal and scuff of leather marked the motion, and Ares kicked at the tucked-tight body as his weapon hit home in the dirt. 

His foot missed, and his pike was bound up in the fissure it had cleaved in the dusty soil. He released the oiled wood, reaching for the hilt of his sword on his hip, and swallowed as the opponent’s blade touched a needle’s-tip space on the skin of his throat with all the strength of a feather’s fall through an autumn sky.

The battle-haze faded from his eyes, and he smirked as Athena nodded, her stance relaxing and the tip of her blade abandoning its post on his neck. He bent from the waist, kicking his left leg high behind him, using the motion to stretch the muscles along his lower back and those in his balancing leg all at once as he retrieved his pike’s shaft from the dirt. He freed the blade from the soil with a near-violent tug and followed his sister to the blanket at one side of their sparring field. The chilled jug of spring water and amphora of retsina-wine were covered with dampened towels; in the calm half-warmth of the afternoon, the towel’s evaporative nature would keep the containers cooler than simply sitting open in the shade alone. As he and Athena settled to the blanket, he ran a thumb over the edge of the pike’s blade. 

“Well, the steel held up well, but I still think the shaft is too unwieldy for infantry in combat. Infantry on the defensive, or holding a line, sure - infantry on the attack, nope, still better off with a bow for the range…. Thoughts?”

She pulled her helm from her head, plunking the steel to her knee and ruffling her sweat-shining hair all at once. Her expression wasn’t  _ thinking-about-the-sparring-I-just-spent-hours-on-with-my-favorite-only-brother _ ; it was somehow closer to  _ worried-about-everything-and-trying-to-think-about-nothing _ ….

Which was  _ not normal _ for his sister….

“Hey, ‘The, you with me, girl?” There was panic in her eyes as she whipped her head to look at him, and he knew he’d been right to demand her help testing the pike this afternoon. It wasn’t easy for him to hold back the  _ nudge _ he wanted to push toward her soul, but they’d promised ages ago to never use their powers on each other.

No matter how tempting it was to think of testing their true strength like that, they would not betray each other’s trust: their minds were always their own, no matter how close or far-apart their lives would take them.

Her shoulders slumped, the defensive panic fading under overwhelming … sadness…? “I’m with you, but I don’t know about the pike…. Ares, I…. I need help….”

“Who are we hunting…?”

“No one, you jerk!” She punched him, full-strength, and he rocked with the blow rather than attempt to withstand it: she was his sister, after all, and as strong as anything he’d ever seen. “I need help… thinking….”

“.... My help, with thinking…. Did the Cosmos turn upside down last night?!!” They laughed together, crashing shields and singing steel, and he leaned toward his silver sister in the silence that followed. “Is this about the party the other night, ‘The?”

“.... Not entirely, but…. Gods, ‘Res, I’m so confused! I’ve never been this confused, not once, and I don’t know why! It ought to be as simple as anything to figure out, but…. There’s all these feelings, all these worries, and I don’t think I can do this on my own….”

“Alright. Look, you just start with the party. You were there. Something happened that set up whatever happened that’s got you messed up. What happened?”

“.... A goddess stumbled into me and I took her out into the garden. I thought she was drunk, thought she could use the fresh air….”

“Alright, good. Out in the garden - what then?”

“.... I don’t want to tell you who it was….”

“Okay, don’t; if I’m not hunting anyone down, why would I need to know her name? Just tell me what happened, not who happened!”

“.... She…. Ares, she asked me if she could kiss me….”

Ares waited for her to continue, and when she didn’t, he felt the core of his power beginning to stir in his soul. 

_ Protect. _

_ Avenge. _

_ Defend. _

He bit every threat, curse, warning back behind his teeth and tempered his voice to softness. “Are you upset that she asked, or - ”

“That’s what I’m  _ saying _ , I’m  _ confused! _ I don’t know what I felt, what I’m feeling, there’s too damned much and I’m a girl and she’s a girl and - ”

“Woman, Athena…. If we’re talking kissing and whatnot, you’re not a girl anymore….”

“.... But I don’t  _ feel _ like a woman, ‘Res; I never have…. I…. I don’t  _ feel _ like that, but I don’t feel like I’m  _ not _ a woman…. Is it….” She turned her head away, staring at the grass beside their blanket. “Is it maybe because Dad’s the only one that, you know…. Am I messed up ‘cause I’m  _ his  _ only, that I’m made from just a god…?”

“.... You think you’re messed up for liking a chick?!? Women can like women, that ain’t a - ”

“No, ‘Res! I’m saying I don’t think I feel like she does at all, but somehow it hurts me that she seemed upset that I didn’t kiss her back!”

She was facing him squarely again, arms tense and trembling, hair dancing in a breeze that hadn’t been there before.  _ There’s my twinnie…. _ “Okay; not everyone wants kisses, ‘The, that’s no big deal either….”

“.... But how can I  _ want _ to know her better, more, if  _ that’s _ what she wants of me…? How is that fair to her?!”

“You talk to her about it; you figure out whatever is gonna work for you two, or not, and you do that….”

“.... It can’t be that simple!”

“It ain’t that complicated, sis!” He saw her flinch at the harshness in his tone. He wasn’t truly mad, and he saw that she knew that, but he was  _ wrath’s ire _ for a reason…. “Love takes a lotta shapes, and it doesn’t ever matter what shape the people are wearing. Love can be whatever you make it to be, because you make it with the people you choose. If you hurt thinking she’s hurting, then there’s something there, and you owe it to you and her both to figure it out rather than let it fester into something rotten….”

Her face hardened, settling into the lines and angles he recognized from years across the chess board. “.... You’re right. Thank you….”

“Mmmhmmm, yep; you’re smart enough, you should have figured that out yourself….”

“I was  _ trying _ , ‘Res, but…. There was a lot of feelings, a lot going on with that kiss…. I don’t know if I liked it or not, because I can’t even hold all the everything it made me feel….”

He watched her stoic face, eyes hard on her knees, and he plunked a hand onto her shoulder. She tensed, didn’t even seem to realize she’d done it, so he shook her shoulder for a heartbeat. That got her attention and she twisted out from under his heavy palm, turning to glare at him from beneath her half-drying forelock. 

“If there’s one thing I know about you, it’s that you’ve always been a little different about touch. It’s different when we spar: you initiate those contacts half the time. Plus, it’s  _ big _ contact, huge amounts of surface area all at once…. A kiss is something more localized, more intense in how concentrated it is. ‘The, it makes sense to me that you would have a little trouble with that….”

“.... Oh….” Understanding in her eyes now, and he smiled as she started to grin. “Wow…. I…. I didn’t even really realize….”

“Yep, but that’s what I’m here for, sis: to tell you when you’re fucking up, just like you do for me….”

“Jerk.”

“Takes one, hypocrite.”

“Cat-crap.”

“Bat-barf.”

“Scum-shoe!”

“Toe-jam!”

They bellowed with laughter, falling to the blanket and rolling, fighting to catch their breath. When he could finally sit up again, wheezing through his teeth, he snagged the amphora of retsina before his sister could lay claim to it first.

_ And who said there’s no wisdom in war…? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this update was so short; I think it was because it was written from Ares POV, and to me, he is a very bare-bones kinda guy. He doesn't need all the frou-frou extra stuff to get his point across; he comes at the problem head-on, and that kinda bled over into the actual presentation of this chapter.
> 
> The next chapter may be a little more in-depth, but no promises: Muses have their claws in me, y'all just don't even know, I'm just here for the ride....
> 
> Now, a few nuggets of Swoonie-spective:
> 
> When Ares points out to Athena that she has "issues with touch" - this is very much a straight from the horse's mouth scenario of myself as an autistic person. This is the easiest way to explain it, and there's not much more to say on that. 
> 
> Athena. Is. Me. Right. Now.
> 
> Additionally, with Athena in this fic being written as "of Zeus only" - it makes sense to me that she will have some rather... demi- and/or ace-ish tendencies, as a mind-crafted Being. Basically, to date, she has not experienced feelings or arousal, or lust, or physical attraction - but she does want emotional and possibly even romantic connection:
> 
> But because she's a poor wee literal brain-bean, she may be having some trouble reconciling those seeming disconnects.
> 
> And Ares is right - this isn't something she can figure out on her own, by herself - it's something she needs to discuss with Hestia directly, because it involves both of them....
> 
> ....
> 
> Wisdom from unexpected quarters, indeed....
> 
> The next chapter will be another Athena-processing-and-doing-things-about-her-feels chapter, and most likely the next one after that, too. 
> 
> Athena's talked to her brother, her all-but-twin....
> 
> Now it's time to go talk to Mama Hera....
> 
> (And I'm open to guesses on who y'all think she might try to go talk to after she talks to Hera - I am srsly betting y'all won't guess it! It's gon' be awkward and great and GAH YOU'LL NEVER GEDDIT BUT GUESS AWAY!)
> 
> Much love, my dears!
> 
> -Swoonie and the headspace weirdos who love talking about shit that hardly ever gets talked about  
> 27 June 2020


End file.
